Bathroom, Day 8

It’s actually looking like a real bathroom in here!

 

Today when it was time to get started, my Dad said “Well, finally the reason you flew me out here to begin with!”  That’s not actually true, but I will admit we wouldn’t have planned for nearly as much tile if it wasn’t for him!

 

Dad worked super hard today. The tile saw was NOT all that he wanted it to be, there were a bunch of annoying cuts, and it was just much slower than he wished.  But after a long day, my shower looks like this:

 

It’s so pretty!  I LOVE this tile! We looked at several different places for tile. I decided I wanted porcelain, not ceramic, because it looks better longer (more like natural stone without the super high price!).  Lowes by FAR had the best price.  That decorative stripe (which is always the most expensive part), is actually 12x12 mosaic tiles, cut into 12 x 3 strips, so you can get 4 pieces out of each one.  It saved us about $20 doing it that way, and I LOVE it!

 

Hubby was also working while Dad was. He wired up the plugs and the first light (the second light was right above the tile saw, so that will have to wait!), and did a whole bunch of the little finishing things.

*Light switches make me way too happy!

Bathroom, Day 7

Today, I was the star of the show.

Originally, because we were so far behind, today was going to be tile day and I wasn’t going to paint until everything was finished.  But my smart Dad started thinking, and realized we could work it out this way.

So bright and early, I got started.  With a brand new room, there is A LOT of paint to buy!
I started with a coat of primer on the walls, followed immediately by a coat of ceiling paint.



That green board is SUPER dark, and I thought I’d be happier with a second coat of primer. So, four hours later, I did that second primer, followed by a second coat on the ceiling.
Four hours later, the color actually went on the walls!



*Confession: I’m not super happy with the color. Actually, on my screen it looks just the way I wanted to in this shot.  But in person, it’s too baby blue.  I debated between this shade and a different one, and finally went with this one because I thought the other was too gray.  Oops! Well, someday I’ll repaint it!

Four hours after that, I finished with the last coat of paint.  Depending on how you count that, I did 6 coats of paint in one day.  All by myself too!  It was about 5 1/2 hours of painting, but I’m so happy it’s done now, instead of trying to paint around all the tile!

Bathroom Build Days 5 and 6

HOORAY!!! The sheet rock is finally hung! After Dad and Hubby hung it, they then had to tape and mud.  Unfortunately, mud takes at least 12 hours to dry, and we need about 3 coats of the stuff!



This shot gives you a better view of the partial wall we removed – MUCH more room to maneuver in here!



So, while they were waiting for mud to dry, the boys also hung sheet rock on the outside of that wall



And moved our attic access. See, the new wall cut our access in half – and since it wasn’t too big of a space to begin with, we knew we needed another hole!



I haven’t been able to help much with anything, but they did let me help sand. Now there’s a dirty, thankless job for you!  But I’m super happy for progress. Next up, paint!

Bathroom build, days 1-4

Yes, I’m combining a ton of days here.  That’s because not much worth taking pictures of happened in these days!

Day one: I wanted to get the tub set this day, but thought that might be a bit much.  Oh Yeah. I over estimated!  Dad got to my house about 3:00 pm. He spent 2 hours looking and planning everything. Then he and Hubby went shopping. 3 1/2 hours later, they were finally done. That’s all that happened that day!

Day two: I was SURE the tub would be set this day, and Dad was hoping to maybe get the sheetrock hung. Nope! Wrong again! See, originally, the builders just built two walls and put all the pluming between those instead of in the 2x4’s like you’re supposed to.  And getting all those pipes moved over and switched to the better pipe and all that involved two more trips to different stores, an insane amount of work, and way too much stress!  And the electrical was off most of the day (along with the water), so I didn’t have a whole lot I could do around the house either! But, by the end of this day most of the pluming was finished, and a good share of the electrical was also complete.

Day three: Dad was positive we’d get the sheetrock done this day. NOPE! (are you seeing pattern here!) But the tub was finally set, the rest of the pluming complete (hooray for no more hot and cold mixing together!). I have no clue what else took 12 hours today1

Day four: Ok, today FINALLY all the electrical was done and the framing completed.  I only made three separate trips to the store to get supplies for them!  Sheet rock was started, but they ran out of screws, and it was late, so that will take another day!

I’ve been really bad at remembering to take pictures at night when the boys are done, and they start so early in the morning that that’s hard too! but here’s a shot of where we are after day 4!
 

The biggest problem now is light!  This room is super dark. But our neighbor is letting us borrow some work lights, so that will help!

Because Every Remodel Needs a Great Story

Once Upon a Time . . .

There was a crazy woman who wanted to completely gut her bathroom.  Lots and lots and LOTS of planning went into these dreams.  She had a notebook full of ideas and dimensions and prices.  She found a free white toilet.  She saved $400 on a sink.  She knew what tile and lights she wanted.

But she did not have a bath tub.

Her adorable Hubby had a major problem just ordering a tub online. Unless he could see it, measure it, sit in it, he just wasn’t going to do it.

The problem with this? The local stores only carried cheap $100 tubs that had horrific reviews, or super expensive $700+ options with jets.  Neither was acceptable.

After 2 weeks, Hubby finally decided to believe the online reviews and agreed to let her order the perfect $300 tub. 

So she tried. (ok,the third person thing is getting annoying. I’m switching now!) The site wouldn’t let me order the stupid thing!  I tried calling the 800 number. I was told I couldn’t order because there weren’t any tubs in the warehouse, but they might be able to help me at the store.

This was NOT GOOD!  The tub is one of the very first things you put back in a room – it goes in before the walls do!  I proceeded to spend 4 hours online looking for ANY other option (no, I wasn’t the best mommy this day!).  Honestly and truly, there was not a single other tub at any local store that was in our price range that I was willing to put in our new bathroom.

So, 30 minutes before bedtime, I bundled all three kids up and drove to lowes.  The man there told me that yes, it’s true, there aren’t any in the warehouse. But he could call the next day (during normal hours), and find out when they would get some in. 

Hubby’s parents live a couple of hours away. I asked if THAT store had any.  Nope.  There was one store four hours west that had a few, and another store two and a half hours north that had three, but that was it. I asked him to call me the next day and we’d decide then.

With great frustration, I drove home, put the kids to bed, and despaired. If we couldn’t get a tub, how could we even do this remodel? My Dad was flying out, Hubby had 11 days off work, and there wasn’t going to be anything for them to do!

Out of sheer curiosity, I got back online. I changed my store to the city 4 hours away. Nope, couldn’t buy it.  I changed my store to the one 2 1/2 hours away. Still couldn’t buy it, but it came up with a store that was only ONE and a half hours away.  It had 20. TWENTY!!!!!!  Without even consulting Hubby, I whipped out my card and bought the sucker.  Later that night, when he called to wish me good night, I told him what I had done. I worried he’d be bugged, but nope. He was happy that I’d done it.

5 days later, the store called to inform me my tub was ready. After I put the older kids on the bus, I drove ‘Lil to a friends house, and took off (Harry Potter #5 in my cd player to keep me occupied). I drove straight to the store. Two very nice helpful women put the tub in the back of my van, and I drove home. I was gone just over 3 hours total. 

And it was worth every single mile!

(Can I say I love my van! You can fit a ton of stuff back there!)

Bathroom remodel, Demo day 2

*I’m condensing almost a month’s worth of work into a few posts. There may be a few clues to how much time has passed, but just know this was NOT a fast process!

So, for a week nothing happened in the bathroom. Then Hubby’s Dad came out and helped him with the rest of the demo. So today’s stuff isn’t too exciting – just some drywall purchased and some more destruction!

Ok, so dangling electrical work in the middle of a hallway isn’t the safest thing around! But that should change in a few more days!

Bathroom remodel, Demo Day 1

My wonderful hubby is patient enough to put up with my crazy ideas. Although he has NEVER done any construction work, he believes me when I tell him we can completely gut and redo our bathroom without hiring it out.  Why do I think we can do this?

Because this  awesome, very funny man, just happens to be my father. He was county building inspector for 30 + years, plus laid tile professionally for decades. If it has to do with construction, he knows it.  And he’s willing to fly out to help us!

 

So, let’s start out with the before:

Here’s what we’ve been living with. It’s better than the original!

 

But obviously this is something that has to be fixed up correctly before we ever try to sell this house (not that we plan on moving any time soon, but still, it’s something that needs to be done!)

Hubby was CONVINCED that  it would take him 2 weeks to demo it.  I laughed. He obviously has never done demo! We had a friend come over for some grunt work, and in 5 hours it looked like this:

Wow. It’s kind of amazing how much bigger a room looks without a tub in it!

Hubby did accidentally cut a pipe.  And it did take another 4 hours to figure out how to fix that pipe. Finally, since I really rather needed to have water for the next 2 weeks! We decided to just cut it off and cap it.  We’ll be replacing that whole section anyway!

Demo isn’t done yet, we still need to take down this whole wall:

But we decided to leave that for a while so we have a way to keep our 2 year old out of there!

I also picked up a roll of that sticky plastic stuff to cover up some of our carpet. I like this carpet, but it has such a crazy thick mat:

That It’s hard to get junk out of it!

So now I’m without an upstairs toilet for the next two weeks (well, two weeks until we start construction!) Middle of the night bathroom runs aren’t too fun, but at least we have running water!